new york
CNN
—
Facebook is once again a target of former President Donald Trump. And that's worrying some Wall Street traders.
Meta Platforms (META), the owner of Facebook and one of the key players in the recent market rally, said on Monday that after President Trump called CNBC and branded Facebook an “enemy of the people.” It fell by about 4%.
Meta shares also fell 1.2% on Friday following a post on Truth Social in which Trump accused Facebook of being “the real enemy of the people!”
Meta's market valuation has fallen by more than $60 billion since Trump's attacks began Thursday night.
Other than a rebuke from the former and possibly future president of the United States, there doesn't seem to be any major news that would cause a decline in meth.
“This has everything to do with former President Trump's comments,” DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria told CNN. “Facebook has been through a wave of political controversy, and that never bodes well for them.”
Trump surprised many last week by reversing his stance on TikTok and opposing the ban sought by many in Congress, including many Republicans.
why? Trump has argued that banning TikTok would help Facebook, which the former president has long fought against.
“What I don't like is that Facebook can be big without TikTok. I think Facebook, along with a lot of the media, is the enemy of the people,” Trump told CNBC on Monday morning before U.S. markets opened. told.
Following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, Facebook suspended Trump for two years. Meta reinstated President Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts in February 2023.
“I think Facebook has been very dishonest. I think Facebook has been very detrimental to our country, especially when it comes to elections,” President Trump said.
Mehta did not respond to requests for comment.
Investors are clearly paying attention to President Trump's attacks. Meta shares briefly fell about 5% on Monday, hitting their worst level since December 2022.
Mr. Luria, the DA Davidson analyst, said Mr. Trump's comments raise concerns that Facebook could once again become a target in Washington.
“When a presidential candidate calls them enemies of the people, it puts them back at the center of the debate, where they haven't been in the last few years,” Luria said.
Specifically, Luria said that if Trump were elected president, he could put pressure on Facebook by making it harder for Meta to make future acquisitions. The company's previous acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp have been central to its growth.
“If we can't buy the next great product in the future, we're going to have a hard time competing,” Luria said. “It's a pretty influential thing a president can do, not to mention use the power of the podium to limit a company's appeal to a specific group of voters.”
Of course, Trump himself is heavily involved in social media.
U.S. regulators recently gave the green light to a controversial merger between Truth Social's owner Trump Media & Technology Group and a blank check company. If approved by shareholders later this month, Mr. Trump will own a controlling stake in the newly public company, which could be worth billions of dollars.
The full House is scheduled to vote this week on a bill that would give TikTok about five months to separate from its China-linked parent company or ban U.S. app stores from hosting the app on the platform.
President Joe Biden has said he is ready to sign the TikTok bill if it passes Congress.
